Samgak-san Taego-saAncient Hermitage of a Living BuddhaWest of Yongam-bong Peak, above Jungheung-saji -- within Goyang City and the National Park-- Southern Sector of the Bukhan-Sanseong Fortress -- Visited August 2010

Interior of the Sanshin-gak. This relief-carving on the rock-face is crude but evocative. The monk living here told me that it was carved by Taego himself, but I have to doubt this. It was obviously re-painted recently. The pine-tree can barely be seen, and the crane-feather-fan that San-shin holds is black -- highly unusual. The dongja boy offers a single Peach of Immortality.

The Budo cremains-monument of the monk who restored this hermitage in 1964, and the North Star Spirit in the clouds (with sam-shin triplets and celestial Buddhas), in the modern Chil-seong painting

Simple Main Hall, with typical Life-of-Buddha paintings on its outer walls. It is recorded that Great Meditation Master (called a "Living Buddha") Taego Bo-u built this as his personal hermitage in 1341, while he was supervising the reconstruction of Jungheung-sa just below.He called it simply Dong-am [East Hermitage], but after his death it was renamed Taego-am.After both of them were destroyed in the Korean War, this was rebuilt as a humble temple in 1964, and the biseok stele-monument to Taego was moved here from the Jungheung-saji site.It remains today a small but significant temple of the Taego Order of Korean Buddhism.

The Sanshin-gak [Mountain-spirit Shrine] above the Yongwang-dan and spring; and a modern ritual-portrait of Taego Bo-u.

The Sanshin-gak entranceway, and good signboard (below). The right-hand wall of this shrine is the face of the unusual boulder-outcropping that it was built against.

Folkish votive-offerings left on the "natural altars" of the outcropping

Samgak-san's Yongam-bong and Shidan-bong Peaks above the Residence, on a humid August day.

Ordinary Shin-jung painting, but with no identifiable San-shin; notable that this protective-guardian icon has a fire-extinguisher placed next to it!

The simple modern Yong-wang [Dragon-King of the Waters] shrine and painting